Sorry Fish

So, when Big Kid graduated, they gave us a DVD with a bunch of interviews they had done with the kids and footage of them playing and stuff.

I wish I could share it here, because it is pure comedy gold, but I can't. Just take my word for it, four is the funniest age. No one will convince me otherwise.

Anyway, at one point Big Kid's class is lined up against the wall and is asked what their favorite activity had been. One little boy says that it was when they cut up the fish and the blood squirted everywhere, and another boy enthusiastically says, "There was so much blood!", and you can clearly see Big Kid in the background, small and white as a sheet and looking queasy.

You can read Big Kid like a book. If he is sick or tired or about to puke, you can see it on him plain as day. He's also got a very weak stomach. He recently gagged and choked all the way through the movie "How to Eat Fried Worms". Yesterday he started dry heaving when he saw that little kid was chewing a muffin wrapper to a white pulpy chunk. If you were to set a bowl of cottage cheese in front of him, he would turn gray and gag.

He was clearly physically repulsed by whatever it was these two were talking about. Then the teacher pulls out a Ziploc bag to show the camera a fish heart and liver (I think?). A fish that they dissected. In pre-k.

We ARE in S. FL and one of the student's father's is a charter boat captain (I'm almost positive this has something to do with it) and I know the teacher loves science...but I am not that thrilled. Especially that it wasn't specifically mentioned at some point, even afterwards. If he had brought this up months from now (as he often does), I would have no clue what he was talking about. I can just about guarantee that whatever day this happened he came home and acted strange and I probably chalked it up to being tired or not feeling well.

He just learned about death, and so far to him a fish is no different than any other animal. I don't eat fish and I'm not sure he really even knows that people do. I would have at least liked the opportunity to have discussed it with him myself.

I asked him about it when I saw it on the DVD and he paled a little and looked pensive and answered everything with a quick but quiet yes or no. I dropped it because I didn't want to turn it into anything, and I love and trust his teacher and am sure she addressed whatever issues any of them would have had at the time, but I still think about it now and then and think it was weird.

I bring it up now because our parks and rec department is offering free fishing lessons, gear and bait included, tonight at one of the parks and Big Kid wants to go. I'm pretty sure it's a catch and release sort of situation, so hopefully it won't be too traumatic (for me...since I don't like eating fish, I don't really enjoy harassing them either).

In an ideal world, I'd be a vegeterian.